Screenshot of the Day: Divinity II: Ego Draconis

"The dragon is perceptive, his eyes as alert as his mind. Only he discerns a difference in a mirror."

Divinity II: Ego Draconis is a fantasy RPG, and the most surprisingly good game I've played this year. In most aspects, it's as standard as an RPG can get, from fighter/mage/rogue classes to doing sidequests for villagers. There are three big things, however, that make Divinity II such fun to play. First is the combat-- it's (for me, at least) quite challenging, and after almost being killed by tutorial goblins, I realized I would have to do things differently from my Dragon Age strategy of 'hit things until they fall over'. The player character is incredibly agile, leaping and bounding around the battlefield, so I developed a hit-and-run strategy, dashing in, dealing some damage, and somersaulting out before I could be hit. Very early on, I found a pair of magic earrings that tripled the damage from my jumping aerial attacks, so many a goblin suffered an unexpected death from above.

Secondly, the world is detailed and well-built. The main story (at least as far as I've gotten) is really terrible and uninteresting, but each environment along the way is populated with unique characters and lots of books to read and puzzles to solve. The player is free to explore at their own pace, discovering completely unnecessary caves and personalities, the latter including dual-personality Jackal & Clyde and the former including a mystical rune that creates infinite chickens.

The third selling point might be considered a spoiler, since you spend the first five hours of Divinity II as a Dragon Slayer, but on the other hand, Ego Draconis directly translates to "I am a dragon". That's the thing: after a certain point in the game, the player can shape-shift into a dragon. Levels after that are designed with that in mind: huge skies and deep canyons are explored by air, and the world is divided into "Things I Can Burn When I Breathe Fire" and "Everything Else". The leap of faith in Assassin's Creed is impressive, but even more epic is running and leaping off a cliff as a human, then transforming into a dragon and swooping away.

I can get very long-winded when talking about games I really like, and there's a lot more that could be said about Divinity II. It's a very screenshot-friendly game, so I'll probably be putting up some more pictures soon. For now, let me say that I am reminded once again that critical acclaim is one thing and entertainment is entirely another.